Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter xsrossiter
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xsrossiter

Guest
Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
problem in the cloning process?

I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
computer.

How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.

Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
space on the new drive?

Thanks for any responses, Steve.
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

xsrossiter wrote:
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?

Partiton image/cloning with your favorite imaging application.
Then, as long as the drive letters remain the same - you should see no
difference.

If you want to keep the Dell 'restore' or more likely, 'diagnostic'
partition - just image/clone the entire disk from one to the other and
expand the second partition (the OS) as needed.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>
 
RE: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restor

RE: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restor

The "restore" partition is seperate from C:,thus it has nothing to do with
cloning a new drive.However,most mfg disk software like seagates doesnt
work with xp,actually xp already has the software.Simply set the new hd as
slave to C: on the same IDE cable,format the hd in xp,once thru,go to
run,type:
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,once its thru,C:
is now on the new hd.Also,D: being the new,but if asigned diffrent
letter,then
use that one instead..Works every time in xp,except with SATA hds...

"xsrossiter" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?
>
> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>
>
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restor

Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restor

xsrossiter wrote:
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?

Andrew E. wrote:
> The "restore" partition is seperate from C:,thus it has nothing to do
> with
> cloning a new drive.However,most mfg disk software like seagates doesnt
> work with xp,actually xp already has the software.Simply set the new hd as
> slave to C: on the same IDE cable,format the hd in xp,once thru,go to
> run,type:
> XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,once its
> thru,C:
> is now on the new hd.Also,D: being the new,but if asigned diffrent
> letter,then
> use that one instead..Works every time in xp,except with SATA hds...

Ignore Andrew E....
XCOPY will not do what you want.

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea...t+OR+wrong+OR+bad+OR+XP)&safe=off&qt_s=Search

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition


"xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?
>
> Thanks for any responses, Steve.

Use Acronis to clone your OS partiton only... not the entire drive. Tell it
to resize the partition on the fly to use up the entire destination drive.
(You did not have to format the new drive in order to do this ...in the
future when cloning just use a raw drive).
btb
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

"btb" wrote:
> "xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
>> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
>> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
>> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
>> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
>> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
>> problem in the cloning process?
>>
>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
>> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
>> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
>> computer.
>>
>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
>> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
>> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
>> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>>
>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
>> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
>> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
>> space on the new drive?
>>
>> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>
> Use Acronis to clone your OS partiton only... not the entire drive. Tell it to
> resize the partition on the fly to use up the entire destination drive. (You
> did not have to format the new drive in order to do this ...in the future when
> cloning just use a raw drive).
> btb


Careful reading of the Acronis User manual (a downloadable .pdf
from the www.Acronis.com website) seems to indicate that Acronis
cannot clone single partitions. Instead, it only seems capable of cloning
the entire hard drive - unlike Symantec's Ghost and Future Systems
Solutions' Casper. Acronis might work for the OP if Dell's "hidden"
partition is also hidden from Acronis, but I don't know if that is true.
If Acronis *can* see the "hidden" partition and it clones it, perhaps
Acronis could be used to delete that partition after cloning and to then
expand the OS's partition to include the entire hard drive. If not, you
might have to use Ghost or Casper to transfer just the OS's partition
to the new hard drive.

*TimDaniels*
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition


"xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?
>
> Thanks for any responses, Steve.


Steve:
A clone is a clone is a clone. As such, the Seagate DiscWizard (being a
derivative of the Acronis True Image program) will clone the *entire*
contents of your source HDD including the "hidden" partition. There is no
special "preparation" needed for the destination disk. The fact that one of
the partitions - "hidden" or otherwise - on your source disk is FAT32
formatted is immaterial.

What this all comes down to is that following the successful disk cloning
operation your destination drive containing the cloned contents of your
source HDD will be, for all practical purposes, a bit-for-bit copy of the
latter.
Anna
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

"xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
> problem in the cloning process?
>
> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
> computer.
>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>
> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
> space on the new drive?
>
> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>

The clone should be a duplicate of its source. That means all partitions.
Some cloning and/or imaging software will copy individual partitions, not
just the entire hard disk contents. That is not the case with the Acronis
disc wizard software.

I tried it using 2 identical SATA hard drives. The clone was not bootable.
The source hard drive, XP started, hal.dll could not be found or was damaged
per message on screen after the cloning attempt. I used the boot CD iso to
create a boot CD with disc image on it. The iso comes with the disc image
product download.

I also used disc image within XP to create images of my XP partition. The
restore result, restoring the boot CD, was not usable.

Admittedly, the software could have been botched during the download from
the seagate website. But, am not going through that mess again.

Dave
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition


"Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
news:%23ArlW8O3HHA.2312@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> "xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
>> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
>> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
>> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
>> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
>> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
>> problem in the cloning process?
>>
>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
>> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
>> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
>> computer.
>>
>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
>> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
>> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
>> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>>
>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
>> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
>> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
>> space on the new drive?
>>
>> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>>
>
> The clone should be a duplicate of its source. That means all partitions.
> Some cloning and/or imaging software will copy individual partitions, not
> just the entire hard disk contents. That is not the case with the Acronis
> disc wizard software.
>
> I tried it using 2 identical SATA hard drives. The clone was not
> bootable. The source hard drive, XP started, hal.dll could not be found or
> was damaged per message on screen after the cloning attempt. I used the
> boot CD iso to create a boot CD with disc image on it. The iso comes with
> the disc image product download.
>
> I also used disc image within XP to create images of my XP partition. The
> restore result, restoring the boot CD, was not usable.
>
> Admittedly, the software could have been botched during the download from
> the seagate website. But, am not going through that mess again.
>
> Dave
>

I'm going to weigh in here just to get the OP to consider downloading the
trials of either CompApps Drive Wizard v3.15
http://www.compuapps.com/Download/download.htm or Casper XP
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/ .

Neither are likely as sexy or full of options as Acronis, but I'd bet one of
them would work as a cloning solution for all of the partitions. Both
programs are pretty small and easy to use.

Both trials can be installed and the cloned drive tested before one has to
purchase either product.

I use Drive Wizard and have for some 3 years for a bootable backup; a close
friend couldn't get it to work with his system but found that Casper XP
provided that same function (a fully bootable drive copy with all
partitions).

Stew
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

"S.Lewis" wrote:
>
> "Lil' Dave" wrote:
>> "xsrossiter" wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
>>> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
>>> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
>>> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
>>> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
>>> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
>>> problem in the cloning process?
>>>
>>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
>>> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
>>> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
>>> computer.
>>>
>>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
>>> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
>>> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
>>> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>>>
>>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
>>> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
>>> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
>>> space on the new drive?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>>>
>>
>> The clone should be a duplicate of its source. That means all partitions.
>> Some cloning and/or imaging software will copy individual partitions, not
>> just the entire hard disk contents. That is not the case with the Acronis
>> disc wizard software.
>>
>> I tried it using 2 identical SATA hard drives. The clone was not bootable.
>> The source hard drive, XP started, hal.dll could not be found or was damaged
>> per message on screen after the cloning attempt. I used the boot CD iso to
>> create a boot CD with disc image on it. The iso comes with the disc image
>> product download.
>>
>> I also used disc image within XP to create images of my XP partition. The
>> restore result, restoring the boot CD, was not usable.
>>
>> Admittedly, the software could have been botched during the download from the
>> seagate website. But, am not going through that mess again.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>
> I'm going to weigh in here just to get the OP to consider downloading the
> trials of either CompApps Drive Wizard v3.15
> http://www.compuapps.com/Download/download.htm or Casper XP
> http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
>
> Neither are likely as sexy or full of options as Acronis, but I'd bet one of
> them would work as a cloning solution for all of the partitions. Both programs
> are pretty small and easy to use.
>
> Both trials can be installed and the cloned drive tested before one has to
> purchase either product.
>
> I use Drive Wizard and have for some 3 years for a bootable backup; a close
> friend couldn't get it to work with his system but found that Casper XP
> provided that same function (a fully bootable drive copy with all partitions).
>
> Stew


The free 30-day trial version of Casper has only one restriction:
It can clone all or individual partitions, but the clones will be the same
size as the originals - they will not be expanded to a larger size or to fill
up available space on the new hard drive. See
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/ .

*TimDaniels*
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition


"Timothy Daniels" <SpamBucket@NoSpamPlease.biz> wrote in message
news:46bf91c8$0$29692$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> "S.Lewis" wrote:
>>
>> "Lil' Dave" wrote:
>>> "xsrossiter" wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
>>>> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
>>>> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
>>>> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
>>>> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
>>>> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
>>>> problem in the cloning process?
>>>>
>>>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>>>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
>>>> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
>>>> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
>>>> computer.
>>>>
>>>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
>>>> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
>>>> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
>>>> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>>>>
>>>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>>>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
>>>> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
>>>> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
>>>> space on the new drive?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The clone should be a duplicate of its source. That means all
>>> partitions. Some cloning and/or imaging software will copy individual
>>> partitions, not just the entire hard disk contents. That is not the
>>> case with the Acronis disc wizard software.
>>>
>>> I tried it using 2 identical SATA hard drives. The clone was not
>>> bootable. The source hard drive, XP started, hal.dll could not be found
>>> or was damaged per message on screen after the cloning attempt. I used
>>> the boot CD iso to create a boot CD with disc image on it. The iso
>>> comes with the disc image product download.
>>>
>>> I also used disc image within XP to create images of my XP partition.
>>> The restore result, restoring the boot CD, was not usable.
>>>
>>> Admittedly, the software could have been botched during the download
>>> from the seagate website. But, am not going through that mess again.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>
>> I'm going to weigh in here just to get the OP to consider downloading the
>> trials of either CompApps Drive Wizard v3.15
>> http://www.compuapps.com/Download/download.htm or Casper XP
>> http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
>>
>> Neither are likely as sexy or full of options as Acronis, but I'd bet one
>> of them would work as a cloning solution for all of the partitions. Both
>> programs are pretty small and easy to use.
>>
>> Both trials can be installed and the cloned drive tested before one has
>> to purchase either product.
>>
>> I use Drive Wizard and have for some 3 years for a bootable backup; a
>> close friend couldn't get it to work with his system but found that
>> Casper XP provided that same function (a fully bootable drive copy with
>> all partitions).
>>
>> Stew
>
>
> The free 30-day trial version of Casper has only one restriction:
> It can clone all or individual partitions, but the clones will be the same
> size as the originals - they will not be expanded to a larger size or to
> fill
> up available space on the new hard drive. See
> http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/ .
>
> *TimDaniels*
>


Thanks, Tim. I believe you w/o referencing the link.

DriveWizard does resize partitions, expanding them to fill larger partitions
if one chooses to do so. It's a 3-4 click process.

Stew
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

"S.Lewis" <stew1960@mail.com> wrote in message
news:9GFvi.18246$eO1.16732@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
> news:%23ArlW8O3HHA.2312@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> "xsrossiter" <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>> news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives and
>>> currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data drive to a
>>> 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the OS drive. My
>>> question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software designed by Acronis,
>>> that will clone the original OS disc to the new drive, but will the
>>> hidden Restore Partition from the original disc pose some sort of
>>> problem in the cloning process?
>>>
>>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that was
>>> maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case then I
>>> would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace with my
>>> computer.
>>>
>>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have already
>>> formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that the cloning
>>> operation might not work if it is trying to put information from a
>>> hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS partition.
>>>
>>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of the
>>> destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original, complete
>>> with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available the extra
>>> space on the new drive?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any responses, Steve.
>>>
>>
>> The clone should be a duplicate of its source. That means all
>> partitions. Some cloning and/or imaging software will copy individual
>> partitions, not just the entire hard disk contents. That is not the case
>> with the Acronis disc wizard software.
>>
>> I tried it using 2 identical SATA hard drives. The clone was not
>> bootable. The source hard drive, XP started, hal.dll could not be found
>> or was damaged per message on screen after the cloning attempt. I used
>> the boot CD iso to create a boot CD with disc image on it. The iso comes
>> with the disc image product download.
>>
>> I also used disc image within XP to create images of my XP partition.
>> The restore result, restoring the boot CD, was not usable.
>>
>> Admittedly, the software could have been botched during the download from
>> the seagate website. But, am not going through that mess again.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>
> I'm going to weigh in here just to get the OP to consider downloading the
> trials of either CompApps Drive Wizard v3.15
> http://www.compuapps.com/Download/download.htm or Casper XP
> http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
>
> Neither are likely as sexy or full of options as Acronis, but I'd bet one
> of them would work as a cloning solution for all of the partitions. Both
> programs are pretty small and easy to use.
>
> Both trials can be installed and the cloned drive tested before one has to
> purchase either product.
>
> I use Drive Wizard and have for some 3 years for a bootable backup; a
> close friend couldn't get it to work with his system but found that Casper
> XP provided that same function (a fully bootable drive copy with all
> partitions).
>
> Stew
>

Another possibility in the failure could be is I'm remapping the SATAs as
ide primary master and slave. Don't know if disc wizard peeks in at the
bios to see this or not. My PC has the older SATA ports. Can only be
remapped to primary ide for booting via bios setting. Might be something
funky going on regarding this.

Appreciate the weblinks.

Think I'll stick with Partition Commander at boot time for copying
partitions from/to hard drives. Do one at time, takes awhile. But, it
works. I make a clone once a month. Image (drive image 7.0) every week to
firewire drive.

I'll try Casper next month. Hope it don't wreck it like Disc Wizard did.
Dave
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

xsrossiter <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives
> and currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data
> drive to a 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the
> OS drive. My question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software
> designed by Acronis, that will clone the original OS disc to the
> new drive, but will the hidden Restore Partition from the original
> disc pose some sort of problem in the cloning process?

I've not used Seagate's DiskWizard but do know that both the source
and target drives in any clone operation must be Seagate products.
Otherwise it won't work.

A competent freeware cloning tool that clones drives of any brand is
CopyWipe:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php#download

It has a minimalist interface but is straightforward to use. Works
from a floppy but is included in the UBCD4Win PE builder.

A cloning operation will typically make an exact bit for bit copy of
all data from the source HDD to the target HDD. Most have the ability
to proportionally resize the partitions on the target drive if it's
larger. Since your source drive has that hidden Dell partition I
don't recommend you proportionally resize, just resize the boot
partition after the clone opertation has been successful.

The resize operation will be quick and simple as the boot partition
will be enlarged into free space.

Recommend PartedMagic / GParted (easy and free) or BootitNG trial
(good but tricky to learn) as LiveCD to do this.

> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that
> was maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case
> then I would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace
> with my computer.

If you image the boot partition and restore it to a partition you've
made for it on the target HDD (note you *do* have to create
partitions to receive an image) the new HDD will boot to an error
message unless you modify the boot.ini file it contains to tell it
the boot partition it is the first partition on the drive, not the
second. If this sounds tricky, just stick with the cloning operation.

>
> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have
> already formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that
> the cloning operation might not work if it is trying to put
> information from a hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS
> partition.

No need to partition or format the target HDD before you begin, the
cloning operation will do it all for you. It is a one step operation.
The target HDD can be completely raw and unpartitoned.

> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of
> the destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original,
> complete with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available
> the extra space on the new drive?

After a straight copy (no proportional resize) the end of the drive
will be free space, ie: not partitioned or formatted. You can
partition and format it, *or* resize the cloned boot partition into
the 300 GB or free space after the cloning operation as an additional
step or steps.

GParted / PartedMagic is the simplest way to do this -- it has a well
designed GUI that makes is easy to understand what you're doing.
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition


"Toast" <me@not.here> wrote in message
news:Xns998BD7FCF3E6Btoastingtoastnet@130.133.1.4...
(SNIP)
> I've not used Seagate's DiskWizard but do know that both the source
> and target drives in any clone operation must be Seagate products.
> Otherwise it won't work.


Toast:
Are you sure about this? A number of persons who use that Seagate DiscWizard
program have told me that it's only necessary that *one* of the drives need
be a Seagate HDD. As a matter of fact one of them told me it didn't seem to
matter whether it was the source or destination disk that was a Seagate. Are
they mistaken about this?
Anna
 
Re: Cloning OS drive to newer, larger drive without hidden Dell Restore Partition

It depends on the version of DiskWizard one uses. I use DiskWizard 2002, and
it clones drives no matter what brand they are... Ben Myers

On 13 Aug 2007 11:13:57 GMT, Toast <me@not.here> wrote:

>xsrossiter <steverossiter@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
>news:1186886255.838024.241300@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 that I bought with 2 x 200 GB drives
>> and currently am running XP SP2. After first upgrading the data
>> drive to a 500 GB Seagate I would now like to do the same for the
>> OS drive. My question is, Seagate provides DiscWizard software
>> designed by Acronis, that will clone the original OS disc to the
>> new drive, but will the hidden Restore Partition from the original
>> disc pose some sort of problem in the cloning process?
>
>I've not used Seagate's DiskWizard but do know that both the source
>and target drives in any clone operation must be Seagate products.
>Otherwise it won't work.
>
>A competent freeware cloning tool that clones drives of any brand is
>CopyWipe:
>
>http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php#download
>
>It has a minimalist interface but is straightforward to use. Works
>from a floppy but is included in the UBCD4Win PE builder.
>
>A cloning operation will typically make an exact bit for bit copy of
>all data from the source HDD to the target HDD. Most have the ability
>to proportionally resize the partitions on the target drive if it's
>larger. Since your source drive has that hidden Dell partition I
>don't recommend you proportionally resize, just resize the boot
>partition after the clone opertation has been successful.
>
>The resize operation will be quick and simple as the boot partition
>will be enlarged into free space.
>
>Recommend PartedMagic / GParted (easy and free) or BootitNG trial
>(good but tricky to learn) as LiveCD to do this.
>
>> I would rather do without the restore information unless it will
>> produce spurious system errors for loss of the information that
>> was maintained in the hidden partition. If this will be the case
>> then I would rather recreate the hidden partition and be at peace
>> with my computer.
>
>If you image the boot partition and restore it to a partition you've
>made for it on the target HDD (note you *do* have to create
>partitions to receive an image) the new HDD will boot to an error
>message unless you modify the boot.ini file it contains to tell it
>the boot partition it is the first partition on the drive, not the
>second. If this sounds tricky, just stick with the cloning operation.
>
>>
>> How would I prepare the new disk for this situation? I have
>> already formatted the entire disk as NTFS but then realized that
>> the cloning operation might not work if it is trying to put
>> information from a hidden FAT 32 partition onto a destination NTFS
>> partition.
>
>No need to partition or format the target HDD before you begin, the
>cloning operation will do it all for you. It is a one step operation.
>The target HDD can be completely raw and unpartitoned.
>
>> Is there a problem here or does Acronis make a bit-by-bit image of
>> what is on the origin disc and then simply format the remainder of
>> the destination disc in NTFS effectively cloning the original,
>> complete with 39 MB Restore Partition, as well as making available
>> the extra space on the new drive?
>
>After a straight copy (no proportional resize) the end of the drive
>will be free space, ie: not partitioned or formatted. You can
>partition and format it, *or* resize the cloned boot partition into
>the 300 GB or free space after the cloning operation as an additional
>step or steps.
>
>GParted / PartedMagic is the simplest way to do this -- it has a well
>designed GUI that makes is easy to understand what you're doing.
>
>
 

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